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A creamy, steamy bowl of comforting pasta, with a dose of Italian bada bing! Italian Sausage Pasta with Mushrooms is a midweek treat. Use pork sausage or switch to Italian-flavoured chicken sausage for a lighter meat-based meal. It’s ready in 25, so what are you waiting for?
And my Roasted Parmesan Broccoli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes makes a great side serving of greens with this creamy sausage pasta dish.
Sausage pasta recipes
If you’re no stranger, you will know how much we love a pasta with sausage combo. They’re filling and hearty, balance protein and carbs, quick and easy to prepare.
And even easier when you use a nifty little kitchen hack like ready-made sausages, rather than mixing and flavouring your own sausage meat. On a weeknight, I certainly don’t have time for that!
When you think of Italian sausage, a thick and porky one speckled with fennel comes to mind. You might have tried it already in either my Spicy Sausage Pasta with Ricotta recipe or my Sausage Pasta Bake with Mozzarella.
But here, I’m mixing it up with an Italian flavoured chicken sausage to make the dish a bit leaner. You can use either pork or chicken, depending on your preference.
Creamy sauce
I usually make a tomato-based pasta sauce with a pork and fennel sausage, but I’m going off script and making a cream-based one.
I’ve used heavy cream (US) or double cream (UK). But you can use light cream if that is your preference or are on a lower calorie diet.
A creamy pasta sauce doesn’t have to be a stodgy, coma-inducing button-popper. Depending on the type of cream and cheese you use, it can be light and reasonably low cal.
An authentic Alfredo-style sauce, like my Creamy Pasta Sauce, should be smooth and silky and gently bind together the other ingredients.
In this case the sausage, the pasta, the mushrooms. Mushrooms and cream are truly a match made in food heaven.
Other ingredients
We’ve touched on the sausage and cream. Here’s everything else you will need:
- Pasta – any shape will do, but I like something short and chunky
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Button mushrooms – you might want to play around with other varieties!
- A dry white wine – avoid anything sweet; varieties like chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio will all work very well
- Parmesan cheese – I always recommend freshly grated as you will need less to get even better results
How to make it
- Get a pot of boiling water going for the pasta, add plenty of salt, and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. You’ll make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.
- Remove the sausages from their casing so they are ready to go. Heat up a large pan (I used an This is an affiliate link.Our Place Always Pan) over medium heat. Start with olive oil, then add the sausage, breaking them up with a spatula. When they are done, remove the sausage pieces to a plate.
- Using the same pan, melt the butter and add in the sliced mushrooms. Fry them over medium high heat until they are lovely and golden. Once done, season them with salt and pepper.
- Use the dry white wine to deglaze the pan, and turn the heat back down to medium, giving it it time to simmer until the wine has reduced in volume.
- Tip in the heavy (double) cream and grated Parmesan cheese, and stir then to combine so the cheese can melt into the rest of the sauce. Time now to bring the sausage back in, and add a bit of salt to taste. The Parmesan cheese is salty, which is why we wait till the end to add more.
- Take out a half cup of pasta water and drain the rest. Add the pasta directly to the sauce and toss it all to combine. If it seems a bit bland, add a bit more salt. If you want the sauce to be a bit creamier, splash in some of the reserved pasta water. Time to serve!
Recipe Tips and Notes
- Italian flavoured sausages are easy to come buy in most supermarkets. Either chicken or pork work well in this dish.
- Fryiing the mushrooms in the cooking fat from the sausages and some butter will intensify the flavour. The trick is to keep the heat turned up until they are a caramel brown, then add salt. Adding the salt too soon makes the mushrooms release water and leads to a diluted sauce and prevent them from browning.
- I’ve used heavy cream (double cream in the UK) for my sauce. I like it rich and oozy. If you’re more calorie conscious, you can use light cream or half and half (single cream in the UK). The result will be a lighter, thinner sauce. If you want to thicken it up, coat the mushrooms in a tablespoon of flour before adding the cream.
- Again, to lighten the dish, you can half the amount of freshly grated This is an affiliate link.parmesan. Don’t worry – it will still taste delicious!
What to serve with it
Parmesan has already made it into the dish, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t add more before serving. Freshly grated will always work best! I also like chopping up some parsley and sprinkling it over top, both for colour and a bit of freshness.
Finish off the meal with a lovely fresh salad, or go a bit further and add hot and crispy garlic bread.
Storage and leftovers
Although I always make too much pasta, there are never any leftovers! But if your family are more restrained than mine, you can stick in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container and the dish will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.
To reheat, stick it on the stove top with a little water to loosen and heat gently. Make sure the sausage is piping hot. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to preserve an al dente texture when reheating.
Sauces containing cream don’t freeze well. So either gobble up the lot on the day or refrigerate.
Most Sausage Pasta Recipes
If you feel like browsing, take a look at our extensive Pasta Recipe Collection, where you can find a pasta dish to suit anyone’s needs, or try one of these sausage pasta recipes:
- Spicy Sausage Pasta with Ricotta
- Sausage Pasta Bake with Mozzarella
- Sausage Meatball and Pumpkin Pasta
- Orecchiette Pasta with Chorizo Sausage and Roasted Butternut Squash
Italian Sausage and Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
- 500g / 1 lbs pasta, any shape
- 1 tbsp This is an affiliate link.olive oil, extra virgin
- 350g / 12 oz Italian sausage, casings removed; pork sausage, or chicken for a lighter dish
- 1 tbsp butter
- 200g / 2 cups button mushrooms, sliced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 80ml / 1/2 cup dry white wine, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio
- 375ml / 1½ cup double cream/heavy cream
- 100g / 1 cup This is an affiliate link.Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water according to package instructions.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the chicken sausage, casing removed, break it up into chunks with a spatula, cook over medium heat until it’s cooked all the way through, remove from the pan to a plate.
- In the same pan, melt the butter and add the sliced mushrooms, fry them over medium high heat until golden, then season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, bring the heat down to medium and let it simmer until the wine is reduced in volume. Add the heavy cream, Parmesan cheese and stir to combine allowing the cheese to melt into the sauce. Then bring the sausage back to the pan and add salt to taste.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to combine, season with more salt, otherwise the pasta might taste a bit bland. If the dish is a bit dry, add a splash of reserved pasta water to loosen it, then sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I really want to try this recipe, but I have no white wine. do you think red wine would work? or maybe apple juice?
Hi Wendy, I wouldn’t use red wine simply because of the colour. It would make the whole dish look unappetising. You can substitute the white wine with chicken stock or 1/4 cup of apple juice mixed with 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar, which will add a bit of acidity this cream dish needs.
How do you keep the sauce from separating when you add the cheese? I did flour the mushrooms a bit before frying…
Hi Amanda, the separation happens if your heat is too high or the cream is not as fresh, otherwise you shouldn’t have any issues.
Agree with Tam. Garlic perks this dish up.
This is a great base recipe. I added garlic and spinach. Very yummy.